Struggling to secure employment after what felt like a thousand interviews following her voluntary retrenchment in 2009, Thuli Magubane concluded that this may just be God’s way of saying that her journey of being an employee had run its course. Little did she know that 13 years later her brainchild Mint Fresh Advisory Services would boast clients of such high caliber as Standard bank, Sasol, Transnet Port Terminals and the NEF amongst others. Through her company Thuli and her team assist their clients to execute Enterprise and Supplier Development (ESD) programmes.

Thuli says that White males dominate her industry, however, she has proven that there are many competent people of colour from various industries, whom she has recruited to become part of her team. Having attended Instituto de Impressa (IE) Business school in Madrid, Thuli was extremely impressed with how IE sourced their lecturers globally from countries such as Korea, the USA as well as across Europe. IE only selected individuals who were leaders in their fields. Today this same model inspires her design at Mint Fresh Advisory Services. Her team is comprised of qualified industry experts who are Masters graduates or higher. This approach has been instrumental in attracting high profile individuals to the program as they recognize the quality and value thereof.

The main attraction to ESD spaces for most people is the size of the financial pie in and what sets the Mint Fresh team apart from competitors is that they are driven by passion and a deep-seated hunger to develop and grow SMEs. “We are entrepreneurs ourselves and we are going through our own journey while guiding other entrepreneurs through journeys of their own” she says. In a country like South Africa where unemployment is the driving force behind the birth of numerous businesses, many people are entrepreneurs by default. The start-up programme that Mint Fresh offers has been the saving grace for thousands of entrepreneurs, since our education system is one that is designed to produce employees. Thuli says that it has been a blessing to witness how some of the entrepreneurs who are products of her and her team’s program were able to survive Covid with their businesses remaining sustainable even today. This is a major milestone considering how Covid was able to sink various major businesses, some of which have been in existence for over a decade.

Thuli says that entrepreneurship is best approached from an angle of identifying a problem, a need or challenge and providing a solution for it. Many South Africans do not have the right exposure, training or knowledge. “Our free 6-8 week programme covers finance, compliance, marketing, social media and is basically just an all-round business programme.” With several businesses going online post Covid, Mint Fresh’s ever-evolving programme now includes e-commerce.

Mint Fresh’s entrepreneurship training programme is intentionally not accredited, even though it has attracted MBA and PHD graduates but it also caters for those who do not even have a Matric certificate. This goes a long way in promoting inclusivity. Not having the programme accredited has resulted in the loss of business, including a multinational in the beverages sector. Thuli understands the value of the programmes offered by Mint Fresh, they are not the cheapest but certainly not the most expensive. She shared a story of how Mint Fresh lost out on a municipality tender where they were the only company that scored 100% due to pricing. The municipality appointed the cheapest company.

Through it all, Thuli says that what humbles and gives her the most pride, is seeing and reading about success stories of entrepreneurs who have gone through various Mint Fresh programmes. Seeing entrepreneurs succeed really makes everything that Mint Fresh undertakes worthwhile. Talking about success, Thuli is launching her podcast on the 17th of September, which happens to be her birthday. The podcast is aptly named The Success Rate, where she will have conversations with an array of individuals from across sectors chatting and discovering their journeys to success.

By Mbali Mbatha

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